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Treasury

Answer

Paul Flynn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of people who are eligible to claim compensation for the mis-selling of endowment mortgages; and what proportion of those who have claimed have been successful. [188662] Mr. Timms: Given the passage of time since the majority of endowment policies were sold and the lack of contemporaneous records of the advice given at the time, it is difficult to be certain of the number of consumers who may have been mis-sold their policy. The Government supports moves by the FSA to take forward a programme of research to form a better understanding of the numbers of endowment policies facing shortfalls. The FSA had received a total of 452,201 complaints on this subject by 31 March 2004. Information provided by the FSA indicates that the proportion of consumer complaints upheld by firms is now approximately 60 per cent. in favour of consumers, and from those complaints reaching the Financial Ombudsman Service, the figure for cases decided in favour of the consumer is 42 per cent.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

424 c1511W;424 c1509W; 188662

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Compensation Eligibility Mortgages Misrepresentation

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk